Re: Sensible passives (was: confession: roots)

Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> I think there must be a little bit of Sapir-Whorf in this.
Well, my native language uses a passive, but I think it makes more sense
with an active, so that's a bit of evidence against SW.  :-)  "You're
born, you live, you die" would be the only way to express those verbs in
English, which strikes me as odd that the beginning, but not the
duration or end, must be expressed passively.

Do any languages use an active verb for "to be conceived"?  :-)  Again,
there Uatakassí would put the fetus in absolutive and the mother in
ergative, exact same set up as for "be born/give birth", so that verb
_landakí_ could be translated as "be conceived" or "conceive" ("begin
life/create life"?)

--
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

Reply